11 Jul 2022Bonuses are an integral part of online gambling these days, and many players base their choice of casino site on the bonuses that they offer. In a competitive market, casinos know that the bonus offers are a big part of what brings in new customers, as well as keeping existing ones happy.
Online casino sites have far fewer overheads than their land-based counterparts, so they can afford to give out more generous bonuses. Licensing and regulation organisations have also done their bit to ensure that the terms of the bonus offers are fair.
Not every bonus will end up with a lucrative cash reward, but there are many available these days that add real value to the casino gaming experience. On this page we look at all the different kinds of online casino bonuses and explain how they work.
There are two main reasons why online casinos provide bonuses to their players. The first is to draw in new customers, which is why the welcome package offers are usually the biggest and most eye-catching. The other is to retain the players who are already signed up, so that they don’t get tempted by another site’s flashy welcome offer.
Bonuses are not free cash, and there are conditions attached so that players cannot simply withdraw the extra money and leave. The conditions are in place to prevent illegal activity, and also to discourage the practice of bonus hunting. This is when people sign up simply to use the bonus and move on to another casino.
It is a fine line for the casino providers to construct offers that are beneficial enough to attract players, but not so generous that those players go bonus hunting.
There are a lot of differently structured bonuses available to players, and most casinos will offer a combination of a few different kinds. Here we will list the ones that you are most likely to encounter at any given gambling site.
The casino welcome bonus is the most common offer today. This is the bonus that is prominently displayed on the front page of the casino website, and on all the promotional materials for the casino. It is the one that is designed to entice you to sign up and make an account, and it is almost always the biggest bonus that all casinos offer.
These days the majority of welcome bonuses are deposit matches, where the casino gives you the same amount as your initial deposit in bonus credit. Some sites match 100%, which effectively doubles your money, while others give 200% and even more.
Some casinos match not only the first deposit, but several subsequent ones as well, so long as you make the deposits within a given time frame. Many welcome bonuses also include a certain number of free spins – more details on those later.
When you see a welcome bonus with a very high percentage match, be sure to check the small print. Often these offers come with tighter terms and conditions.
A deposit bonus is any type of bonus bestowed on the player as a reward for making a deposit. They can be similar to the welcome offer, such as free spins or a deposit match, but they are for existing players who have already used the welcome package.
In general these offer a more modest reward than the bonus for new players, but they can still be worthwhile. Many casinos implement recurring deposit bonus offers, to make sure that players keep putting money into their account. For this reason they are also known as reload bonuses. You may see weekly, monthly and seasonal reload bonus promos at many casino sites.
This is another, rarer type of welcome offer. In this case the bonus is given to new players for creating an account, before they deposit any money at all. This is a great deal because it comes with very little risk or commitment, but it is far from free money.
For a start, the amounts involved are small. A typical no deposit bonus is in the region of $/€/£5-20 of casino credit, or a limited number of low value free spins. In most cases, if you win with the bonus then your funds will not be released until you deposit at the site anyway.
Another favourite bonus that casinos love to give out is a free spins bonus. This is a certain number of free turns on a slot game, usually one that the casino chooses. This can be as part of any other offer, or as a standalone promotion for any number of reasons.
Like any other bonus, free spins have certain restrictions to prevent players from walking off with too much of the casino’s money. For example, the value of each spin is pre-set and usually isn’t very high.
One of the more recent innovations is the cashback bonus. Just a couple of years ago these were very rare, but they have taken off to such an extent that they are almost standard today. Cashback offers can actually be some of the most materially valuable at any casino, although they may not feel that way.
That’s because in order to qualify for cashback, you must have made a net loss over a given time period – usually a week. You then get a percentage of that loss returned to you at the end of that week. It is a way to soften the blow of a bad run. A true cashback offer gives you back that money with no strings attached, it is simply returned to your cash account. These days, however, we see more casinos putting standard restrictions like wagering on cashback offers.
So far we have alluded to the various restrictions that casinos impose on their bonus offers, so now it’s time to look at those in more detail. The conditions are necessary for a number of reasons, as we saw earlier – to protect the bottom line of the casinos, to prevent illegal activity, and to discourage bonus hunting.
Here are some of the types of conditions that you will see attached to bonuses, which prevent players from making large amounts of money from these offers.
This is the big one, and it is very unlikely that you will ever find a casino that doesn’t impose wagering requirements – also known as playthrough or rollover requirements. It means that the player must wager a set multiple of the value of the bonus, and only after that will any remaining funds be released as cash.
As an example, if you had a $/€/£50 bonus and the wagering was set at 40x, you would need to wager 40 x $/€/£50 = $/€/£2000 on the qualifying casino games. Although it is possible to clear the requirements, in most cases the bonus money will run out before they are met. This is what the casino is relying on, of course.
When clearing the wagering, some games do not count towards the requirements. Others count only a small percentage, for example blackjack usually only counts around 5%. This means that you could wager $/€/£100 on that game and only $/€/£5 would be counted towards the wagering total. This usually applies to games with a low house edge and slots with very high RTP.
This is when there is a maximum value permitted per wager or slot spin, often around $/€/£5.
Just to be very safe and make sure that players can’t win too much from a bonus, some casinos also use win caps. This means that should you clear the wagering requirements and end up with a nice big win, you may not be able to claim the whole amount. If the bonus winnings are capped at $/€/£150 and you win $/€/£300, you only get to keep half of what you theoretically won.
Any players found to have multiple accounts to claim more than one bonus will have all the accounts suspended and lose any money they may have won. This even extends to households and IP addresses, so if you live with another casino fan you should have an account at a different casino.
It is not possible to have an anonymous account at an online casino. All your data will be kept private, but you must provide the site operators with your correct and up to date information. Before you are allowed to make any kind of withdrawal from the site, you must certify your identity by providing ID and other supporting documents. In some jurisdictions, ID verification is required even before making a deposit or claiming a bonus.
Casino bonuses can be a great way to give a boost to your bankroll and buy you some extra time to play at the site of your choice. But make sure that you have read all the fine print before you start, or you may be in for some disappointment.
It’s unlikely that you will get rich from a casino bonus, in fact they have been deliberately designed to prevent such outcomes. Simply enjoy them for the windfall that they are, and remember that the old saying is very appropriate here – if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.
With over twelve years of experience, Beth brings a lot of knowledge in the field of gambling and always deals intensively with casinos reviews. She is responsible for most of the content that is written on MrCasinova.com and she also manages all MrCasinova.com contributors. Beth is native English and graduated with an MBA from Anglia Ruskin University.
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